King Soren
Soren Westergaard is the late king of the Southern Isles and father of Hans, King Klaus and the eleven Westergaard princes. Although he is long deceased by the time of Frozen: The Kingdom of the Sun, Soren's memory continues to have a powerful influence over his sons' lives. Character Personality Through flashbacks, Soren is shown to have been vindictive, self-centered, paranoid, and not immune to temper tantrums. The only thing that brought the king joy and ease was his wife, Queen Helena. From the day they met, Soren was utterly fixated with Helena, seeing her as an angel, and the epitome of beauty and goodness. His adoration for his wife extended to Helena's magical fire powers. Unfortunately, in this obsession, Soren grew possessive of Helena, and he took many measures to keep her for himself, from showering the queen with luxuries to confining her to the royal palace. Following Helena's death, Soren spiraled into depression and insanity. Upon discovering that Helena had entrusted the Gift of Fire to their youngest son Hans, Soren turned his rage on the boy. The king also ignored the well-beings of his twelve other sons in favour of wallowing in his grief. Despite the cruelty he inflicted, it can be assumed that Soren was not pure evil, but lonely and deeply insecure. It is implied that Soren suffered emotional abuse from his mother, and never had any friends or close relationships before marrying Helena. Appearance Soren was a very tall and imposing man, with black hair, a full beard, and brown eyes. He had crooked shoulder blades, likely the result of scoliosis, forcing him to stand slightly hunched over. It is possible that this physical deformity contributed to Soren's supposed low self-esteem. Soren usually wore fine suits, befitting his position as King. After Helena passed away, Soren wore all black clothes as a symbol of mourning. History Westergaard the First Soren was the son of Duchess Thyra Westergaard, a noblewoman of the Southern Isles, and it is unknown if he had any siblings. Ever since Soren's childhood, the duchess groomed her son to one day become King. Using his mother's connections, and possibly more immoral methods, Soren became a member of the former king's royal court, and eventually, the chosen heir. At the time of the King's passing, Soren inherited the crown as the first of the Westergaard line. Before the King died, he entrusted Soren with a map and an amber orb, telling his successor to only use them in matters of great importance. The King and his Muse Early into his reign, King Soren attended a production of the operetta Midnattssol in Weselton. Amongst the cast was budding starlet Helena Lindquist. Soren was immediately captivated by Helena's beauty and song. After the performance, the King approached Helena to request that she travel with him to the Southern Isles and star in a private concert. Flattered, Helena agreed. In Solborg, the capital city of the Southern Isles, Helena performed for Soren, then asked that the King prepare a voyage back home for her. In fear of never seeing the lovely singer again, Soren quickly requested that Helena partake in yet another concert. Not realizing Soren’s true intentions, Helena was happy to comply. Following the second show, Soren continued to prolong Helena’s visit with other activities, including a tour of Solborg, a cruise, posing for a painting, and showering her with expensive gifts. This pretence continued for well over a week. During this time, Soren witnessed Helena’s kindness and cheerful personality, becoming even more infatuated with the young woman. Eventually, Helena came to trust the King enough to reveal her magical fire powers as a Sky Maiden. Soren’s desire to keep Helena soon grew so strong that he asked for her hand in marriage. Helena, having developed a sense of pity for the man she believed to be forlorn, agreed to become Soren’s queen in effort to ease the King’s loneliness. Unfortunately, the engagement only doubled Soren’s fear of losing Helena, and the King fell into paranoia. He would not allow Helena to leave the palace grounds without him, and male staff were forbidden to wait on her, lest she be tempted into infidelity. When the couple was married and Helena crowned as Queen, Soren learned of Helena's desire for a large family with many children. Despite the King's reservations about sharing his wife's love and attention, he could not deny the Queen's wish, and they had thirteen sons together: Klaus, Oskar, Radulf, Magnus, Vilhelm, Bernhard, Gunnar, Isak, Theodor, Thomas, Jakob, Noah and Hans. Helena loved her children and tried hard to stay close to all of them. This caused Soren's misgivings to grow into full fledged jealousy, especially towards the youngest prince, Hans, whom Helena appeared to favour. Madness and Death Shortly after Hans' tenth birthday, Helena contracted hypothermia in an accident, and despite Soren best efforts, tragically died. At the loss of his Queen, Soren sunk into a deep depression. The following Jul season, the thirteen princes started the arrangements to celebrate, but Soren refused to either join in or stop them. During this time, it was revealed that young Hans had been given the Sky Maiden's power by Helena, when the boy was being harassed by his brothers, and accidentally burned his attackers and set the tree on fire. While the twelve elder princes were terrified by this discovery, Soren was outraged. The King believed this to be confirmation of the suspicion that Helena had loved and trusted Hans more than her husband. Soren forced Hans to move into in the palace's attic, and summoned physicians and clerics to perform painful operations and purging rituals on the prince in an effort to extract the Fire Magic. When all the attempts failed, Soren resorted to making Hans wear conservative clothes and gloves at all times, and inflicting harsh punishments when his son used his power, which included, but was not limited to, getting whipped with a switch and being locked in his attic room for hours. Unfortunately, King Soren's insanity did not end with this mistreatment of Hans. One night, Soren followed the map given to him by the past king to a rift in the mountain range of the Southern Isles, and inserted the amber orb into a small nearby slot. By doing so, a large door opened down into the rift, and Soren discovered Solborg's greatest secret: the Underlands, an underground kingdom of dwarves. Soren met with the King of the dwarves, and was permitted to beheld the Underlands' most beloved treasure: an enormous enchanted mirror. Seeing the obvious skill in the craftsman race, Soren hoped that dwarves could possibly bring Helena back from the dead, but the Dwarf King admitted that such a thing was beyond their power. Furious and heartbroken, Soren shattered the enchanted mirror, and locked the doorway between the kingdoms, not realizing that a shard of the mirror had gotten caught on his sleeve. Returning home to the palace, Soren has greeted by his oldest son and heir, Klaus. The prince tried to ask his father where he had gone at this late hour, and although the King tried to dismiss him, Klaus continued to badger Soren. Finally, Soren slapped Klaus across the face, and the mirror's shard flew into the prince's eye. Soren finally passed away when Hans was sixteen. The exact details are unknown, but Hans claimed that his father chocked on a cork in the middle of the night, only to be found by the staff the next morning. Trivia * Soren's name comes from the Latin word, severus, meaning "severe." * It is implied that Soren and Helena had their eldest son, Klaus, before they were officially married. Having Helena become pregnant could have been one of the King's ploys to keep the young woman in the Southern Isles. }} Category:The Frigid Princess2515 Category:OC Category:Royalty Category:Unaffiliated characters Category:Frozen: The Kingdom of the Sun